My take on stat weights

As anyone who raids outside a cave knows, nobody really agrees on stat weights for Disc at this point in time. I think this is a good thing. Why? It means that our spec is uniquely balanced and that there isn’t one answer that is entirely wrong. However, it makes it a pain in the tabard for someone of average mathematical prowess, like myself, to get ahead of the curve and start pulling UBAR LEET HPSZORZ LOLOLOL.

So, what did I do? What I would tell anyone else in my shoes to do – wing it! After a few weeks of regemming, reforging and pouring over my logs I feel like I found my own little personal niche. I raid 25s, currently 2/7 heroic FL (stupid end of summer attendance) with a healthy focus on tank healing and some raid healing when I get bored raid damage gets high. If I could only speak one sentence on this subject that one sentence would be: OMFG I love the crit buff!

But crits are RNG you say? Yes, I agree. But why do I still love the stat? Because I believe in the ABC method of disc healing – Always Be Casting. We have the mana pool and int-based regen to handle this. In fact, I tried healing on a druid alt and felt like BC all over again, though the 5 second rule had been modified I was standing there doing nothing so that I could have the mana to do something later. Disc doesn’t need to do this. So, back to my point – if I’m spamming the tank anyway crits are just an added bonus!

That’s not to say that I believe in reforging to crit, gemming for crit, or neglecting my other stats in favor of it. Due to yummy raid buffs and our high preference for Int, even though crit is a really great stat it will sort of come on its own. So, here is where my opinion wavers from most.

Haste and spirit are stats that I find to be very personal to priests. You know how well you ride your Rapture ICD or how well you don’t. You know how well you maximize BT and how well you don’t. The advice of a world first raider will have a lot of insight in it, but it won’t be very relevant to the less hardcore raider. That kind of min/maxing may not be the best course of action to someone who raids when 9 or 24 other people show up, and those people vary. So I encourage you to find your comfort zone with haste & spirit. Personally I feel the best around 2-2.2k minimum spirit and 8-12% haste unbuffed. Aim to keep your spirit as low as you are comfortable with, and consider keeping some extra trinkets so that you can swap to regen when needed.

As you can probably tell I like to focus on throughput. Since I’m not much of a bubble spammer, mastery usually comes last for me. But since I see my stats as breakpoints and I hold to the belief that they work pretty well together for a Disc priest, I try to go for some semblance of a balance. I’m currently focusing on bringing my mastery up as my gear improves. Contrary to popular belief, mastery doesn’t lend as much of a boost to PoH as crit – as I understand it, the DA is just too small but when it crits it double dips.

In short, Nae recommends:

Do whatever you can through cooldowns, procs, potions & timing to boost active regen, allowing you to lower spirit & focus on throughput

A clean, functional UI with good visual and or audio cues will help a great deal – Power Auras & ForteXorcist are highly recommended

Once your regen feels good, find your haste point – if you’re doing a lot of overhealing or have an issue with your target dying during a cast (minus eff-ups of course) you should consider increasing haste

Crit is good now, but not at the expense of other stats

Mastery is great for PW: Shield, but crit is better for PoH

Note: The following will exclude haste & spirit due to the YMMV disclaimers above.